StarStudio Magazine, June 2003
by: Jerome Gomez
We just couldn't wait to see the end. So StarStudio's Jerome Gomez give you what you've all been clamoring for - Yuri and Katrina finally exchange "I do's."
It's 7 in the eveing. With beer within easy reach and beside it, chips on a bowl, I rest my legs on the coffee table in front of the television. It is dreamtime.
Despite the drama that is "Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay" playing on the telly, my mind wanders to bouquets of white roses, a bride barefoot on the sand, a groom in a black tux. The snippets keep flashing in my mind, as if to say Yuri and Katrina cannot go on living like this, endlessly being taken away from each other. I decide to give in to the flashes and create my own dream- ending to their saga.
The scene: A wedding. At dusk. On a beach. Yuri and Katrina.
After all the partner-swapping, the bursts of tears and bombings, the tragedies and joys, my friends, Yuri Orbida, 24, perhaps the most admired of his generation's batch of lawyers, and Katrina Argos, 21, one of the most promising law graduates this year, inks their lifetime contract at dusk in a most intimate and solemn wedding ritual in an exclusive island in Zambales.
Only the closest members of their family - led by the groom's long lost mother Lorea Orbida and stepfather Dimitri Mijares - and select friends are present. And the lovely young couple say their "I dos" amidst the lapping of waves, white rose petals (roses are Yuri's favorite flowers) littered on the sand, with the sunset as backdrop. It is so romantic. And unusual.
While the two did send invitations- in the form of a very simple handwrittern notecard- three days before the wedding itself, there was no information as to where the ceremony will take place, "just to make sure there will be no bombings or kidnaps or some soap opera-type sabotage," says the groom who, despite the "crazy" last-minute preparations remembered to bring a black tux. Black, he once told me, is his favorite (non)color; although this evening, he might as well change his preference to the color of blush. "I am so overwhelmed with happiness," he will tell me after the ceremony. The bride, clutching a bouquet of white roses, wears a beautiful white chiffon dress that dances with the wind. Bride and groom are barefoot.
But what makes this wedding more unusual is the choice of participants for the entourage. Katrina's brother, Nikos Argos, will walk the bride down the aisle. Helaena Argos, the bride's older sister, Orbida's former girlfriend, is the maid-of-honor. And while the groomsmen are indeed me, Dave Imperial and Anilov Mijares, the best man is a woman: Kayla Reneza, another ex-girlfriend who has since become the groom's closest confidante. Bridesmaids are Katrina's clostest friends Gwen Martinez and Lilibeth dela Cruz. There are no principal sponsors to speak of. "We wanted Saddam and Bush for ninongs buth they are not available," the groom joked on the phone a day before.
Flashback: Eight years ago.The couple first me when Orbida was going out with Kat's elder sister. While there was no attraction on Yuri's end, Katrina already had a bit of crush on the young man. They would meet again at a special lecture that Orbida would deliver in the university she was studying in and Katrina would eventually be an intern at his law firm. He would profess his love during a company outing and, finding nothing close to a ring to symbolize his feelings, he gave her a stone he found on the beach.
"Yuri is creative, a closet romantic," says a friend. "Ang history ng journey ni Yuri as a man, napakalawak. When I first ment him, he was almost too perfect: he's a loving son, ang pangarap lang niya matupad lahat ng pangarap ng tatay niyia para sa kanya. Pero matalino siya so nagpursigi siya." And then tragedy struck. His father was shot to death and thought he almost lost his mother until they got reunited recently. Naging matigas siya. Ayaw niya na maging involved ulit emotionally to anyone kase takot na siyang maranasan ulit yung nangyari sa kanya before so he became a womanizer, Until dumating si Katrina, na-open 'yung heart niya ulit."
"Kat is intelligent," offers a member of the bride's family. "She dreamt of so many things when she was a kid. She was interested in so many things. She's strong, very articulate, very smart, persevering. Over and above everything, very protective of her family, and she's a very loving sister. She's feisty, she's a fighter." This is perhaps why Orbida got enchanted, and finally gave the big proposal last month.
Final Scene: Happily Ever After.
And here they are now. While a yacht was what Orbida wanted originally as the setting of the reception, he yielded last minute to the request of his bride: little huts floating on the water. On the shore, there are ice cream and fishball carts, the sorbeteros and fishball vendors all wearing a tux. The party will last to the wee hours, champagne will flow, there will be lots of dancing, and everyone will have a grand time. It will be an affair to be remembered forever. And my long wait will be over.
Theme song fades in.